Laundry treating appliances, such as laundry dryers, may be provided with a treating chamber in which laundry items are placed for treatment according to a cycle of operation. For some laundry treating appliances, the laundry items may be treated by air flow to remove liquid from the laundry items. The air flow may be heated by a heating element, which has been traditionally operated at full power when ON. Therefore, to maintain a desired temperature, the heating element is normally cycled between ON/OFF states according to a duty cycle that will provide the desired temperature.